Sponsored Institutions - Stories

By Cara Hansen
Director of Marketing and Communications
Rosarian Academy

February 16, 2018, West Palm Beach, Florida – The National Junior Honor Society (NJHS) at Rosarian Academy on February 3 led the school community in a large-scale gleaning effort to provide food for those less fortunate in Palm Beach County.

Seventy pre-school through eighth grade students and family members spent their Saturday morning in Delray Beach picking more than 4,000 pounds of bell peppers. The peppers were delivered to the Palm Beach County Food Bank and then distributed to local agencies and shelters that feed the “food insecure” in the West Palm Beach community.

For the last five years, Rosarian Academy has partnered with Christians Reaching Out to Society (CROS) Ministries, the event organizer, in participating in two gleaning events per year. According to a CROS Ministries volunteer, the organization picked 500,000 pounds of food in Palm Beach County last year alone; yet, the Palm Beach County Food Bank has calculated that 32 million pounds of food is needed to ensure that no one in the community goes hungry.

Gleaning helps to lessen the estimated 54 million pounds of farm produce wasted every year. CROS Ministries works with local farmers to allow volunteers to glean, or pick, the left-over crops that are perfectly edible but do not meet supermarket standards. Through this meaningful community service project, the students experience the power of making a positive difference in the lives of the needy in our community.

“It is in helping to feed others that we ‘reverence life,’” said Patrick Hansen, Rosarian NJHS moderator and teacher, in a note he wrote to all who volunteered. “Thank you for helping us live our Adrian Dominican mission.”